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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26599180">Adder Stone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightSystem/pseuds/StarlightSystem'>StarlightSystem</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Transcendence AU [16]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gravity Falls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Ficlet, Gen, Reincarnation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:29:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,161</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26599180</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightSystem/pseuds/StarlightSystem</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper and Belle find a weird rock on the beach.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Transcendence AU [16]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1372192</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Adder Stone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This takes place in the <a href="https://transcendence-au.tumblr.com/">Transcendence AU</a>! Inspired by an anonymous prompt and <a href="https://silvermp.tumblr.com/post/159626877382/an-adder-stone-is-a-type-of-stone-usually-glassy">this art</a>.</p><blockquote>
  <p>An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. -  Adder stones were believed to have magical powers such as protection against eye diseases or evil charms, preventing nightmares, curing whooping cough, the ability to see through fairy or witch disguises and traps if looked at through the middle of the stone, and of course, recovery from snakebite. According to popular conception, a true adder stone will float in water.</p>
</blockquote>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Dipper! Hey, hey Dipper, Dipper look at me, look at meeeee, your sister! Check this out, hey!!”</p><p>Dipper, sitting on a rock in his striped swimsuit, was hunched over a shard of black glass he’d found while walking along the beach. He groaned at the sound of Belle’s voice and curled up tighter. “Not now!” he barked back. “I’m busy studying this volcanic rock I found. I read that people used to use them to send secret messages and do magic yknow.”</p><p>Belle’s padding footsteps came to a halt inches away from him. “The only secret code on that rock is the one that says you’re a nerd,” she said, shaking him by the shoulders. “And you don’t need a rock to tell you that ‘cause I’m nice enough to do it for you! That’s just the kind of gal I am.”</p><p>He rolled his eyes and looked up. “What is it?”</p><p>His sister posed dramatically like the models she’d seen on TV, which she personally thought made her look very enchanting thank you very much despite the fact that she was ten and had sand all over her legs and swimsuit. “Look at my dazzling jewelry!” she announced, showing him her right hand.</p><p>Dipper raised an eyebrow. “You put a rock on your finger.”</p><p>“Yeah!” Belle pulled her hand away and held it up to the sky. “I found this cool rock with a hole in it like a ring! Now I’m just like a beautiful swan maiden from that movie <em>Kidnapped At Dawn</em>.”</p><p>“Oh my stars, Belle, you don’t want to be like the girl in that movie,” Dipper grumbled, looking back at his piece of glass.</p><p>“Oh yeah? Well... it’s still a cool ring! Maybe Danny from Mrs. Penlip’s class and I will get married someday and he’ll give me a ring juuuust like this one!”</p><p>“Ew, that’s gross!” Dipper got up and snatched the rock off his sister’s finger, to her loud dismay. “The getting married thing <em>and</em> the putting a weird rock on your finger thing.”</p><p>“Give it back!” Belle shouted, her face turning red. “Okay maybe not Danny -- he did pee on the slide at recess last year -- but someone else then!”</p><p>Ignoring her, Dipper put his hand out to block her from grabbing the rock, and used the other to hold it up to his eye. “Just gotta check out the damage here,” he huffed, trying out the voice of the professor from <em>Dr. Researchman</em> because it was his turn to act out a character from his favorite show. “Gotta see all the beach gunk you got on yourself -- whoa.”</p><p>Belle stopped flailing and cocked her head. “Whoa?”</p><p>“Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,” Dipper breathed and swung his head around. Through the rock he could see a massive pink lizard, stretching as far down the beach as he could see. It looked sort of like a salamander but it had red frills around its head and a catlike smile. The... whatever it was... seemed to notice his attention, as it winked at him and started crawling away.</p><p>And that wasn’t all he could see. There were little sparkling bits of fluff everywhere in the air. One close to his head made a buzzing sound and flew into his gaping mouth. He yelped and tried to spit it out, but as far as he could feel with his tongue there wasn’t actually anything in there.</p><p>“Belle, this is so cool!” he said finally. “If you look through the rock you can see all this invisible stuff! I can’t - I can’t even explain it, I uh, I gotta sketch some of this in my notebook!”</p><p>Without taking the rock away from his eye, he scrabbled around behind him to try to find his notebook.</p><p>Belle put her hands on her hips and pouted. “Yknow, it was my rock first,” she said. “I should get to look at the invisible stuff first.”</p><p>“Finders keepers, losers criers,” he shot back, sticking his tongue out.</p><p>“It’s losers <em>weepers</em> -” she started, glaring at him, and then faltered. “Whoa. How are you doing that?”</p><p>At last grabbing his notebook, Dipper flipped open to a blank page and started doodling. “How am I doing what?”</p><p>“That thing with your eye!” Belle squeaked. “Through the ring rock, your eye like turned completely black! How are you doing that?”</p><p>“Uhh.” He finally took the rock away from his eye and squinted at it. “I dunno. That’s kind creepy. Hey wait...” he added, catching a glimpse of his own hand through the opening. “It makes my nails look really long and pointy too. What <em>is</em> this thing?”</p><p>“Let me try, let me try!” Belle squealed, grabbing the ring back. “I wanna see if it makes my eyes go all creepy too! It could be a really cool Halloween effect, yknow?”</p><p>Looking at her brother, she started to put the rock up to her face, and for a split second something dark and horrible flickered before her eye, like the worst nightmare she’d ever had come to life, sending a shiver down her spine as it came into focus, and -</p><p>“Belle! Dipper!” Lionel’s voice came from a little bit down the beach. “It’s time to go!”</p><p>Belle shrieked in surprise and fumbled the rock. It went shooting into the air and landed somewhere in the sand. Both she and Dipper gasped and dropped to their knees to search for it.</p><p>“Kids?” Lionel said, much closer now. The twins looked up at him, disappointment written all over their faces. “Come on, let’s go. I bet you two are hungry -- I know I am -- and I saw a great restaurant on the way here that serves ice cream burgers. That sounds good, doesn’t it?”</p><p>“Oh boy, does it!” Belle shouted, jumping up and running toward the car, lingering thoughts about the stone already dashed.</p><p>“You coming, Dipper?” Lionel asked.</p><p>Dipper picked his hands up and watched the sand filter through his fingers. “Yeah, I guess,” he murmured. He stood up and gave his dad a weak smile, then ran ahead to catch up with his sister.</p><p>“Hey Belle,” he said when they reached the car, both panting from exertion. “Um. Did you see any of the cool stuff I was talking about? In the rock?”</p><p>She frowned. “Iunno. I didn’t really get a good look at it. There was something kinda scary in there but I dunno what it was.”</p><p>Dipper kicked at the pavement with a sandaled foot. “That blows. It was so cool -- it was like there’s all this hidden magic stuff all around us and we just can’t see it.” He sighed as their father caught up with them and started to unlock the car. “I just. Wish I could see that sort of stuff all the time.”</p><p>(Only a couple of years later, Belle saw Dipper’s eyes go dark again, and from then on he no longer needed a magical rock to truly see the world around him.)</p>
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